The Emerginov platform has been the key element for the VOICES FP7 European project http://mvoices.eu/. One of the requirement regarding sustainability of the European project consists in delivering an open source version of the open PHP PaaS.

It is a basic PHP incubator allowing rapid prototyping on over the top of operator networks. It focused on Telco web project and more precisely on vocal and SMS based services.

It consists mainly in:- portal ensuring the glue between the different other open source components- scripts (automatization of development from the internal SVN to the lived network)- puppet installation scripts

It is mainly developed in PHP + scripting languages.

2 versions are planned:- standalone (simple on one machine)- Advanced (based on several virtualized machines)

we also consider the Gateway (SMS (Kannel) and vocal (Asterisk) ) as associated elements to provide a complete system.

See the High level description document for more details.

Description of the project and its goals

The project was initially an Orange Labs project, the goal is to transfer it to a community mode involving current partner (web foundation from FP7 project) University of Technology of Mauritius.

The initial goals of the project were:- provide an open source IP multimedia low cost infrastructure- simplify the creation of "Telco-web" mobile micro-services on over the top of the operator network by local people for local people- build a reference forge of business micro-services dedicated to African context

The publication of the glue is an element of the sustainability within the context of teh FP7 European project and is in line with the global philosophy of the initial project (we use only open source components)

Targeted audience

We shall consider 2 types of Audience:- people who are using the platform to develop micro services (end users)- people who are developing the platform itself (middleware designers)

Considering the second option (middleware), the standalone version could meet the needs of the universities to manage internal student micro-service projects and get an infrastructure for lecture on open source and contribution to open source communities.

The second version will more target institutional entities, big NGO or operators.

Supporting team

Orange Labs will be the core support team (mailing lists already exist dev_emerginov@emerginov.org) We expect to initiate a community based on our partners involved in collaborative project and/or universities involved in research contracts based on the platform (Wolof recognition - ESMT Dakar, USSD enabler- UTM Mauritius , geoloc API – UCAD Dakar,..)

The core team from Orange Labs is based on:morgan.richomme@orange.comdavid.blaisonneau@orange.comarnaud1.morin@orange.combenoit.herard@orange.combertrand.lelamer@orange.com

Business model

There are currently studies on business models around the subjects lead by TNO for the FP7 European projects.The business model shall be considered according to 2 angles:- business model for the incubator- business model for the micro services developed on top of the incubator (a micro service has been developed for that type of BM : http://projects.emerginov.org/EmergeBusiness/EmergingBusiness/EmergingBusiness.php)

User community

A internal community has been initiated https://elgg.emerginov.org306 users are referencedwe used to offer a bootable USB key to partners during hackathon. These keys automatically register people in this community site.

community based on students met during hackathons already performed in Senegal, Egypt, mauritius, France,...

We already have severla mailing lists:dev_emerginov@emerginov.orgnews_emerginov@emerginov.orgadmin@emerginov.org

Internationalization

The main goal was to provide an infrastructure for Africa. We already deployed 2 platforms: 1 in East Africa (Mauritius / English) and one in West Africa (Dakar / French).The developer wiki is written in English (https://developers.emerginov.org/wiki)

Hackathlon have been organized in France, Egypt, Botswana, Senegal, Mauritius.

The platform is used in FP7 european project including partners from Portugal (PT), Netherlands (VUA), Mali (SahelCo), Senegal (ESMT, RNL, Sonatel), Webfoundation

Roadmap

We expect to be able to organize an Emerginov development summit with major partners to define new features and roadmap ( Ubuntu UDS session)

Hosting

No we just want to host the code (SVN) + web site, FAQ, doc,...no hosting of the solution is required

Your project and OW2

Need to study the OW2 existing projects.We initially integrated a jboss for the J2EE part (because of Mobicents) but we do not use it a lot (only for mobile widget projects) so we could imagine to integrate a JonAS instead.As mentioned most of the code is PHP for the web part and C for the already existing open source components (Asterisk, Apache, MySQL,...)

OW2 components

None so far

Synergies

The project could be one element to develop a telco initiative within OW2. Moreover existing OW2 components could be used. As mentioned earlier JonAS could be suggested as J2EE enabler within the incubator and thus any Java component could be promoted. Benchmark could be done by CLIF...

We are able to organize Hackathon based on this software with any university. Please note that for Hackathlon, we usually deploy gateways to perform local vocal or SMS based service.

Technologies and standards

See High level description document

Contribution to the OW2 Community

A middleware adapted to Emerging countries (degraded cloud).A smart integration of lots of mature software.A small bu already existing communityAn original Telco web infrastructure for the community

Motivations to join the consortium and its community

Middleware project initiated by Orange => Orange also member of OW2.Emerginov is targeting universities, NGO, institutional entities => no a mass market solution, or a developer solution, OW2 looks better than github or sourceofrge regarding the targeted audiencePossibilities of synergies with professional actors